I can't see anything on the L1 port or the #1 Serial port on the back, but maybe it doesn't output anything without graphics. The light on the front is red for a few seconds when turned on, then goes to blinking white. I'm obviously planning to get graphics, but should I be able to communicate with it now?

I would expect to see *something* on the L1 port on the motherboard, although I do vaguely remember reading that Fuels don't like booting without graphics (could be wrong here). Are you using the correct serial settings for it? And are you sure it's specifically a null-modem cable that you are using?

It's very possible something is messed up with my serial setup. Cable which might be null modem + DB9 jack with header pins + USB serial with individual wires to connect is likely to have a problem somewhere, I might try Telix on an older laptop.

Where a simple 3-wire cable works for a serial console, you should really use a cable with hardware handshaking for the L1 connection (or anything at 38400 and faster). And configure your console program to use it.

To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. (IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report)

Didn't have a DB9 F-F adapter, made my own. Yes, the CTS wires are held together with a hemostat, and yes, I did have to individually go through all the wires on that old chopped up DB-25 cable to find which colors go to the laptop. The laptop is running Telix for DOS from a Windows 95 boot floppy my dad made for BBS use back when that was a thing. Hey, breadboard does mean making a null modem is easy.

I would recommend getting a bunch of DB9 and DB25 F/M to RJ-45 shell adapters and a pair of DB-9 and DB-25 serial break out boxes. Convert everything back and forth from standard DEC (a.k.a. Cisco) pattern modular jack serial connections. It's a bit of an upfront cost, but everything becomes so much easier afterwards.

Elf wrote:I would recommend getting a bunch of DB9 and DB25 F/M to RJ-45 shell adapters and a pair of DB-9 and DB-25 serial break out boxes. Convert everything back and forth from standard DEC (a.k.a. Cisco) pattern modular jack serial connections. It's a bit of an upfront cost, but everything becomes so much easier afterwards.

I have a similar system, I'm using a Cyclades ACS48 console server so I standardized on that RJ45 pinout.

Just one thing: I have a whole lot of different adapters, for Cisco, Brocade, PC, SGI 4D to name a few, and the label stickers tend to fall off the adapters so you end up having to guess what they are and that was just what I was trying to leave behind.

To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. (IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report)

If there *is* a video module inside my Fuel, which earlier on ran fine, but then needed a PSU replacement (thanks, Kuba!), and now the graphics output is garbled somehow (but the colours I can see look familiar)... how do I connect to the machine "headless" to correct video mode eventually? L1 connects via a full-fledged null modem cable and serial-2-usb adaptor using "cu -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 38400", but no luck with any of the serial ports at 19200 baud. What am I missing?

Valueing life is not weakness; disregarding it is not strength. -Mirage-

edefault wrote:how do I connect to the machine "headless" to correct video mode eventually?L1 connects via a full-fledged null modem cable and serial-2-usb adaptor using "cu -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 38400", but no luck with any of the serial ports

I'm not familiar with the Fuel, but on the Origin-series machines, from the L1 prompt you hit CTRL+D to get to console mode. From there, CTRL+T takes you back to L1 mode. Try that first from your working L1 connection. Also, workstations typically check for a keyboard at start-up, and if they don't find one, they'll switch to a serial console (regardless of whether or not a graphics card is present). So if getting a console through the L1 doesn't work, remove the keyboard before trying the serial port.